Creativity Prompts for Writers, Journalers, Artists and Speakers

I’m not scared of the woods. I’m scared of being lost in the woods, unable to find my way back to the main road and the brush where I hid the bike. Mostly, I’m scared about what else might be in the woods hunting the deer hunters. –The Omega Project by Steve Alten

Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a horror story about something that hunts the hunters in the woods.

Journaling Prompt: What scares you about being in a wilderness area.

Art Prompt: Hunted

Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Tell your audience about common fears about going out into the wilderness and what they can do to stay safe.

I don’t care that the odds of dying in a plane crash are 1 in 11 million. My heartbeat and sweaty palms say otherwise. I don’t care if something has never happened to anyone anywhere in the span of Earth’s existence; I can still worry it will happen to me. Uncomfortable feelings take hold of me, get my brain’s undivided attention and tells it point blank: “Something has to be wrong or we wouldn’t feel this way.” –Panic and the Media: Unraveling the Worry By Sarah Newman, MA

Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, poem, or haiku about being paralyzed by worry.

Journaling Prompt: Write about the biggest worry you have right now.

Art Prompt: Worry

Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Tell your audience about the devastation of worry and how they can stop worrying and enjoy life.

…researchers assessed each individual’s homelessness, inpatient mental-health treatment, psychological symptoms of mental illness, substance use and as victims or perpetrators of violence. The researchers evaluated all of these items as both indicators and outcomes — i.e., as both causes and effects.

“We found that all of these indicators mattered, but often in different ways,” says Sarah Desmarais, an associate professor of psychology at NC State and co-author of the paper. “For example, drug use was a leading indicator of committing violence, while alcohol use was a leading indicator of being a victim of violence.”

However, the researchers also found that one particular category of psychological symptoms was also closely associated with violence: affective symptoms.

“By affect, we mean symptoms including anxiety, depressive symptoms and poor impulse control,” Desmarais says. “The more pronounced affective symptoms were, the more likely someone was to both commit violence and be a victim of violence…

…on average, the researchers found that one event in which a person was a victim of violence triggered seven other effects, such as psychological symptoms, homelessness and becoming perpetrators of violence. Those seven effects, on average, triggered an additional 39 additional effects.

“It’s a complex series of interactions that spirals over time, exacerbating substance use, mental-health problems and violent behavior,” Van Dorn says. –Science Daily

Fiction Writing Prompt: Write the story of a protagonist with poor impulse control and high anxiety.

Journaling Prompt: Write about the state of your mental health and how it affects your behavior.

A man’s identity was once largely drawn from work, family and perhaps sport. Today, men are given the task of designing and maintaining an identity from a multitude of alternatives offered by products they can buy and images they are shown in the media. The supposed reward for all this is social and psychological well-being. As many marketers would have it, “look good, feel good”.

But this shift has brought the kind of pressure to conform to a certain image and body shape that was previously directed at almost solely at women. Recent adverts for Protein World weight-loss products that featured a highly toned, bikini-clad modelwere criticised as an attempt to exploit women’s body insecurities and shame them into buying the products. These were accompanied by similarly revealing but largely unnoticed ads for men. While these don’t carry the same sexist legacy of women’s objectification, they do replicate some of the same body shaming issues. –Matthew Hall

Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story with a male protagonist who is struggling with body shame.

Journaling Prompt: How do you feel about your body? Has it changed over time? How do you deal with any shame about your body?

Art Prompt: Males and Body Shame

Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Tell your audience about body shaming in our culture and give them tools to develop a more healthy relationship with their bodies.